DIY SEO For Small Business: 14 Tips to Level Up Your Business Sales

The SEO game is challenging, and it's hard to rank on the first page of Google. The competition is stiff and the market penetration is hard-won.

You need to have a clear strategy and all the right tools at your disposal if you want to succeed on top of search engine rankings pages.

However, there are a few simple things that you can do as an entrepreneur to increase your ranking. In this blog post, we will discuss how you can level up your SEO strategy for small businesses with the SE Ranking toolkit!

What is SEO?

SEO is a process of helping search engines understand the content on your website so they can properly index it and rank you in organic search results.

SEO is an art and a science, which means there are right ways to do things and wrong ways that don't work as effectively or efficiently. It is also constantly evolving as search engines change their ranking algorithms.

Why does it matter for your small business?

Search engine optimization is an excellent way to increase your website's visibility and help you reach more customers.

If people can find your brand, product, or service with their search engines, they will be much more likely to convert into leads or customers depending on what your goals are for that website.

SEO is hard, and it becomes even more difficult as a smaller business without the resources of larger corporations that have entire teams dedicated to SEO optimization.

However, there are things you can do on your own to improve your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google's algorithms give preference to pages that load fast and have a clean, clear interface. Keyword-rich content is helpful because it shows the search engine what your page is about AND tells users who might find your site in the future what they can expect from it.

How to improve your SEO by Yourself

The following tools and strategies will help you improve your search engine optimization for small businesses.

1. Use a well-designed site to increase speed

Your website needs to load fast if it wants to rank on the first page of Google results pages (SERPs). Site speed is one factor that determines where in SERPs your business can be found, so if your site is slow, it won't rank as high.

We recommend that you use a web host with good reviews for speed and uptime, like SE Ranking's very own!

2. Make sure to have quality content on every page

Search engines index all of the text on your website pages including titles, descriptions, and headers. A lot of small business owners don't realize that their website content is being indexed and used to determine rankings.

An integral aspect that decides your content’s quality is its uniqueness. It’s one of the most crucial factors as readers pay attention to unique content. You must use an online plagiarism checker to detect and eliminate instances of plagiarism.

The web pages containing plagiarized text do not have a positive impression on the readers nor achieve good rankings on search engines. Therefore, you should use tools like a plagiarism checker to avoid it at any cost.

This includes product descriptions, articles about your industry, blog posts, and other text on your site pages. The more quality unique content you have the better!

3. Optimize page titles

Titles are important for SEO because search engines see them as a short summary of what your page is about.

You can use titles on every webpage and in the HTML headings of articles, blog posts, and product pages to include targeted keywords related to your products or services without keyword stuffing them.

By using Catchy Titles, you can make your titles more appealing and memorable to users as well.

4. Be Clear with the Page Description

The page description is a short snippet of text that the search engine displays as your result gets ranked on the second or third SERPs.

This copy should have targeted keywords, but not be keyword stuffed and contain information about what users can expect from clicking through to your site!

This is also an opportunity to tell users what your business does in a few short sentences. Simple words and sentences work best for this.

5. Backlinking

One of the most important SEO strategies that you can do is backlinking. Backlinks are incoming links to your website from other websites and show Google (and users) which pages on your site are popular with people in your industry.

You need at least a few quality backlinks for each page on your website, but not too many or search engines will flag you for link spam.

6. User-friendly URL

The URLs of your website pages can be used to determine rankings too. You should make them as short and user-friendly as possible while keeping in mind the keywords you want to use for that page.

If users are able to find your site by typing in a few words, they will be more likely to stay on your page and investigate your business.

7. Use images to increase rankings

Images are another important factor when it comes to search engine optimization because Google uses them in their image searches.

Optimize all of the images on your website by using good keywords in both the file name (for example, "dog-food.jpg") and alternative text description ("alt text").

8. Include meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are short blurbs that describe a web page's content for search engines so they know if it's relevant for a user's query.

It is an opportunity to tell search engines what your site page is about, and you can include optimized keywords without keyword stuffing them.

Optimizing meta descriptions makes it easier for the right people who are looking for your products or services to find your business!

9. Proper Usage of Business Keywords

Keyword usage is important to search engine optimization, but it's also a hot topic in the industry because everyone's trying to game Google. The use of keywords can be tricky for small business owners that are just starting out with SEO.

First off, you should know that not all keywords are created equal! Longer words or phrases tend to have a higher search volume, so it's important to not only include your main keywords in page titles and meta descriptions but also use them throughout the rest of your website content.

You don't need to stuff all of your target keywords into one paragraph or article; you can sprinkle targeted key phrases within natural-sounding sentences that are easy for visitors to read.

10. Design Outlook and User Experience

The way your website looks is important for attracting visitors and influencing them to make a purchase. It's also something that Google takes into consideration when ranking websites in their SERPs.

A great user experience means fast loading pages, intuitive navigation menus, and easy calls-to-action (CTAs). It is also important for your website to be responsive and work well on mobile devices.

11. Know Your Competitor

One of the most effective ways to stay on top in the search engine optimization game is by knowing what your competitors are doing. Go through their websites, blogs, and social media pages to find out which keywords they're targeting, how often they post new content, and where it's being shared across social networks.

You can also use a website like Spyfu that tells you what keywords your competition is bidding on for pay-per-click advertising, how much they're spending, and which of their landing pages are converting the best.

12. Maintain Consistency

Consistency is important when it comes to search engine optimization because your content needs to be found by users who are looking for your products or services.

You should make sure you're consistent in the keywords you use, how often new posts are published, and even the times of day that you post so there's no confusion about whether or not your business is still active.

If you publish your blog consistently on the same days and at similar times, you can also expect to see an increase in search engine traffic.

13. Share Your Content

Social media is a great place to share your business's website content and blog posts with targeted keywords that will attract new visitors from all over the world.

When you share links on social networks like Facebook or Twitter, you increase the opportunities for people to find your business!

When sharing content on social media, always use targeted keywords so that more users will see it in their newsfeeds.

You can also create a hashtag related to your products or services and encourage customers to share photos of them using those hashtags with interesting comments. This is not only a great way to get more leads, but it's also free promotion for your business!

14. Use Google Analytics

This free tool provided by Google tells you where your audience is coming from, what keywords they are using to find you, and how much traffic each keyword generates.

You can also see which pages of your website people look at most frequently so that you know if the content on those pages needs updating or expanding for more conversions.

This information is extremely helpful when it comes to optimizing your web pages for better rankings in organic searches so you can increase traffic and sales!

Conclusion

By following these simple steps, you can create a targeted SEO strategy that will help your small business grow in no time! It is important for your website to have a good design, be easy-to-use and attract potential customers with quality content.

A strong user experience will make people want to come back and share your website or blog posts on social media! The SEO helps your website rank higher in search engine results so you can get more leads and sales!